If you have then you will lose those changes if you do an automatic upgrade and have made a rod for your own back.

You will need to identify these changes and copy them to a child theme i.e copy the template files to the child theme where BP will use them in place of it’s own ones living in the parent plugin directory.

If you have made changes to any files other than actual theme files i.e core files then you have no option but to update and then manually copy those changes to the new files, but editing core files for any reason is never ever recommended and shouldn’t be done. Any changes a theme needs to effect can be done via hooks & filters via the child theme functions.php file or bp-custom.php file in plugins directory.

@somdefabrica
I think @djpaul is trying to emphasize that you should never make an edit to your theme directly. Instead all edits should be on a child theme of the theme you are currently using because if you have made edits to the bp-default theme directly it will get lost in the upgrade. Any custom functions should be within this child themes functions.php and that is how you keep from losing your customizations.

i think maybe we over thinking this a bit i don’t think @somdefabrica actually mentioned modifying any core files. Generally speaking there is no reason you should be afraid to update wordpress or plugins such as buddypress. It is always a good idea to make a backup (preferably in maintenance mode) prior to any upgrade or adding a new plugin or theme, just in case you have trouble or don’t care for the results.

Is there some reason you are afraid to upgrade specifically or are you just saying that upgrades are scary, generally speaking? If that’s the case i would suggest to you that not upgrading, especially with open source software carries it’s own set of risks. Generally speaking if you don’t want to upgrade something wordpress related you should have a very specific reason.

Yes but where? that’s why I bothered to try and elicit that information from you and explain the various scenarios and possible optios to proceeding as the possible inference was that you had been modifying core files or modifying core template files, and that is still unclear, but as long as your clear on your options now… Happy to have helped.

yeah correct me if i’m wrong but the bp-default theme files (assuming we aren’t actually talking about a child) would count as core files would they not? Anyway anytime you upgrade a theme (again assuming you haven’t made child that contains your changes) you would need to re-apply your modifications or displeasure will probably find you. i make notes on such changes so it’s easy to upgrade painlessly.